Athlon II X3 440 vs Phenom II X3 720

[RMSe17]

Is there any reason to get the Phenom II X3 720 given that the Athlon is way cheaper and comes with faster clock by default?

Given stock speed comparison, or mid-level OC, are there any disadvantages to Athlon?

Goal: cheap gaming computer with fast bootup / browser load times.

Thanks!

 

[alyarb]

the phenom has 6MB of L3 cache, which will help your games a tiny bit, but if the difference in price between the Athlon and Phenom allows your budget to include a nice 120mm heatsink, then do that, because the most important thing is to get a nice 3.5+ GHz overclock.

 

[jtisgeek]

go with the x3 440 if your worried about money the better bet would be to go up to say a 630 quad. It's only 20 dollars more and the extra core will be nicer than the L3 memory.

 

[BD231]

For gaming and overclocking you'll want the PhenomII, if you sit around and encode all day the x4 might prove a few frames faster. Important to note you get higher overclocks with a phenom II, and being that those are mainly sold oem now you won't have to worry about a stock cooler.